Thank you for the in-depth explaination. This topic has a personal imporance to me.
Every summer night I woke up at 3am from the heat, frantically splashing water on my head and limbs. And what's worse, most European windows didn't have a mosquito net either. So not being able to afford to close the window, I lived in total darkness after the sun went down.
I looked at Europe with so much reverence when I immigrated there from Iran. The absence of A/C made Europe look even more backward than Iran, which is not okay! Make Europe Cool (Again?)!
One related point on AC and clean energy, AC demand pretty strictly follows solar availability. Simply installing more solar will very closely match the generation demands for AC, likely with some batteries to help in the evenings. Many countries in Europe are so far north, they may not get much solar generation in the winter months, but I suspect it easily pencils out for just supporting AC demand in the summer.
How does this interact with the policy regime around heat pumps? You'd think that a climate-conscious government would be pushing for heat pump installation wherever feasible... but every installed heat pump is also installed AC!
This is a fair point! Many European countries even subsidize heat pumps afaik. However, it's just not an as easily scalable solution especially in cities with high upfront cost + land requirements.
I lived in the UK in the early 2000s and traveled around. The mild climate thing is real. Until recently, nobody needed an air conditioner in much of Europe, especially at night, even in July.
In fact, in London, you had to carry a sweater or jacket around in July if you planned on staying out past sunset.
Things will change. I don’t think “ideology” is as strong a factor as the author thinks it is.
AC also provides cleaner air to breath. I write this in 2026 on Ontario, Canada where It is 90° F outside and a cool 70° inside with AC. The cost for a month of this will be $40 US. (32.2° C & 21.1° C)
There's something else: Many Europeans think they come from cold places because let's say it snows in winter. They neither have ACs nor, what is worse, blinds, blackout curtains or basic understanding of how to make a home cooler with air currents opening windows. I have seen this in summer in Austria and in Bulgaria for instance. Sometimes the AC is not even needed if you block the sun before it reaches your room. And those who have ACs often don't want to use them because 1) electricity sometimes is/has been prohibitively expensive 2) they get cold or neck pain!!! I know so many people in Europe with ACs installed who don't use them because of these 2 reasons. I have the feeling that ceiling fans would be a better general solution but I don't know how many lives fans can save compared to efficient, easy to use AC. ACs' remotes have an insane amount of buttons and no wonder elderly people don't know what to press. What's your experience in the European countries where you have spent summers with locals?
Very cool article, I independently wrote a blog post with the same title focusing more on one of the potential solutions, such as ground-based heat pumps. We can remove the dependency on natural gas imports, which also serve Europe poorly.
1) Regulations regarding the aesthetics of apartment building facades prohibit the installation of air conditioning because the units protrude out of the windows rather crudely.
2) There is a for-profit monopoly that runs most of the energy market. They like to keep consumer prices the highest in Europe (relative to income), even though production prices are fairly low, in order to receive a generous windfall of rent for the corporate board and senior staff of the company.
AC seems rather prevalent in the south of Europe. Surprisingly, however, one sees very little adoption of home solar panels. Anecdotally, people I’ve spoken with chalk this up to corruption. Why the EU cannot pick this low-hanging fruit probably makes for a depressing story.
Thank you for the in-depth explaination. This topic has a personal imporance to me.
Every summer night I woke up at 3am from the heat, frantically splashing water on my head and limbs. And what's worse, most European windows didn't have a mosquito net either. So not being able to afford to close the window, I lived in total darkness after the sun went down.
I looked at Europe with so much reverence when I immigrated there from Iran. The absence of A/C made Europe look even more backward than Iran, which is not okay! Make Europe Cool (Again?)!
One related point on AC and clean energy, AC demand pretty strictly follows solar availability. Simply installing more solar will very closely match the generation demands for AC, likely with some batteries to help in the evenings. Many countries in Europe are so far north, they may not get much solar generation in the winter months, but I suspect it easily pencils out for just supporting AC demand in the summer.
I was going to say the same thing - Texas’ grid has been much more stable and ERCOT credits it to solar and batteries, particularly in the summer.
How does this interact with the policy regime around heat pumps? You'd think that a climate-conscious government would be pushing for heat pump installation wherever feasible... but every installed heat pump is also installed AC!
This is a fair point! Many European countries even subsidize heat pumps afaik. However, it's just not an as easily scalable solution especially in cities with high upfront cost + land requirements.
Very interesting and solid policy analysis!
I wrote about a similar topic here….
https://open.substack.com/pub/undervineandfigtree/p/why-the-french-embrace-life-without?r=3oybs&utm_medium=ios
I lived in the UK in the early 2000s and traveled around. The mild climate thing is real. Until recently, nobody needed an air conditioner in much of Europe, especially at night, even in July.
In fact, in London, you had to carry a sweater or jacket around in July if you planned on staying out past sunset.
Things will change. I don’t think “ideology” is as strong a factor as the author thinks it is.
AC also provides cleaner air to breath. I write this in 2026 on Ontario, Canada where It is 90° F outside and a cool 70° inside with AC. The cost for a month of this will be $40 US. (32.2° C & 21.1° C)
There's something else: Many Europeans think they come from cold places because let's say it snows in winter. They neither have ACs nor, what is worse, blinds, blackout curtains or basic understanding of how to make a home cooler with air currents opening windows. I have seen this in summer in Austria and in Bulgaria for instance. Sometimes the AC is not even needed if you block the sun before it reaches your room. And those who have ACs often don't want to use them because 1) electricity sometimes is/has been prohibitively expensive 2) they get cold or neck pain!!! I know so many people in Europe with ACs installed who don't use them because of these 2 reasons. I have the feeling that ceiling fans would be a better general solution but I don't know how many lives fans can save compared to efficient, easy to use AC. ACs' remotes have an insane amount of buttons and no wonder elderly people don't know what to press. What's your experience in the European countries where you have spent summers with locals?
Very cool article, I independently wrote a blog post with the same title focusing more on one of the potential solutions, such as ground-based heat pumps. We can remove the dependency on natural gas imports, which also serve Europe poorly.
Glad this information is getting out there!
Here in Czechia, there are two important factors:
1) Regulations regarding the aesthetics of apartment building facades prohibit the installation of air conditioning because the units protrude out of the windows rather crudely.
2) There is a for-profit monopoly that runs most of the energy market. They like to keep consumer prices the highest in Europe (relative to income), even though production prices are fairly low, in order to receive a generous windfall of rent for the corporate board and senior staff of the company.
Thank you for this informative article that steered clear of hysteria.
Re: 4b), if this approach became wide-spread, wouldn't the governments just ban mobile ACs as well?
Haha don't give them ideas
AC seems rather prevalent in the south of Europe. Surprisingly, however, one sees very little adoption of home solar panels. Anecdotally, people I’ve spoken with chalk this up to corruption. Why the EU cannot pick this low-hanging fruit probably makes for a depressing story.